Recaps

After Natasha was gravely wounded by a missile attack, Qin Xiao and Coulson learned she needed a difficult emergency operation. When Doctor Strange refused to operate after hours, Qin Xiao forced him to agree, and Strange went into surgery.

• Coulson arrived at the hospital and told Qin Xiao that S.H.I.E.L.D. was investigating the planned attack on him and Natasha.
• A doctor said shrapnel had severely damaged Natasha’s lung and lay dangerously close to her heart and major arteries.
• The doctor named Stephen Strange as the skilled surgeon most likely to save Natasha, though Strange refused to work after hours.
• Qin Xiao offered Strange five hundred million dollars, then threatened him with a gun and demonstrated his strength when Strange remained unmoved.
• Qin Xiao threatened Christine Palmer and Strange’s hands, and Strange agreed to perform Natasha’s operation while reserving the right to call the police afterward.

After Doctor Strange saved Black Widow, Qin Xiao stayed by her bedside as she recovered and learned from Hawkeye what had happened in Budapest. The chapter ended with Qin Xiao realizing that Dreykov, the Red Room’s leader, had survived the bombing.

• Doctor Strange operated on Black Widow and accepted Qin Xiao’s promise to help him once in the future.
• Black Widow woke the next day, and Qin Xiao helped her sit up and offered her the hot dog he had bought for her.
• Tony, Hawkeye, and Coulson visited Black Widow, and Qin Xiao privately asked Hawkeye about Budapest.
• Hawkeye explained that Black Widow had detonated a bomb at Dreykov’s home despite knowing his daughter Antonia was there, leaving her burdened by Antonia’s death.
• Qin Xiao confirmed that Black Widow had knowingly caused Antonia’s death to escape the Red Room, then asked whether Dreykov had survived.

Dreykov persuaded Francis to give him two super soldiers in exchange for helping capture Qin Xiao, while secretly using Yelena to draw Black Widow into a trap. Black Widow recognized a photograph from her childhood and told Qin Xiao about her sister, leaving the pair unaware that Dreykov and Yelena were watching them.

• Dreykov told Francis he would help capture Qin Xiao only if Francis supplied two super soldiers, and Francis agreed.
• Black Widow found an old photograph of herself and Yelena in Qin Xiao's mailbox, with a message asking whether she could trust her sister.
• Dreykov watched Black Widow react to the photograph and told Yelena to approach her, and Yelena agreed.
• Black Widow brought Qin Xiao home and recounted how she and Yelena had been separated after their undercover family was exposed.

Black Widow told Qin Xiao about her painful past in the Red Room and her guilt over killing Dreykov’s daughter, and he comforted her until they became lovers. Days later, Tony arrived with an envelope that caught Natasha’s attention, interrupting the couple and discovering they were together.

• Black Widow told Qin Xiao how the Red Room had sterilized her and how she had killed Dreykov’s innocent daughter while trying to escape.
• Qin Xiao comforted Black Widow, changed the subject with a silly story about the Gourd Brothers, and she kissed him.
• Black Widow and Qin Xiao spent the night together, and Qin Xiao decided to wait for Yelena and their unknown opponents to make the next move.
• After several happy days together, Nicole announced that Tony was at the door with an envelope, and Qin Xiao let him in because Natasha wanted to see it.
• Tony discovered Natasha in Qin Xiao’s home, teased Qin Xiao about their relationship, and congratulated them both.

Natasha and Qin Xiao tracked down Yelena after she used a boy to deliver letters, and Yelena explained that she had escaped the Red Room’s mind control. The chapter ended with Qin Xiao welcoming her and promising that her brother-in-law would take care of her.

• Natasha told Qin Xiao she had to find Yelena after studying a photograph of their pretend family.
• Qin Xiao and Natasha traced the letters to Hobson, who agreed to watch for the woman delivering them.
• Hobson warned Yelena when she arrived at the basketball court, and Qin Xiao and Natasha chased after her.
• Qin Xiao leaped across an alley to block Yelena’s escape with Natasha.
• Yelena told Natasha that the Red Room had used a neurological agent to control its Black Widows, and that she had escaped and hidden from them.
• Qin Xiao assured Yelena she was safe and said he would take care of her as her brother-in-law.

Dreykov and Francis planned to capture Qin Xiao, while Natasha and Qin Xiao brought Yelena to Tony Stark’s lab. There, Tony’s armor knocked Yelena unconscious, and a scan revealed a tracker in her thigh as the group prepared to check whether she was being controlled.

• Dreykov learned Yelena had gained Natasha and Qin Xiao’s trust and planned to wait for a neurological agent before making his move, keeping Francis’s anesthetic as a backup.
• On the eighth day after Yelena arrived, Qin Xiao took Natasha and Yelena to Tony Stark’s Los Angeles mansion after Tony invited him over.
• Tony showed them his armor experiments, and the armor struck Yelena unconscious while she examined it.
• Tony used JARVIS to scan Yelena and found a GPS tracker in her right thigh but no listening devices.
• Natasha realized Qin Xiao and Tony had suspected Yelena, and Tony brought out a modified brain scanner to test whether someone was controlling her.

Tony scanned Yelena and found that a nerve agent was controlling her, then helped Natasha and Qin Xiao fake a plan to lure Dreykov out. Dreykov saw through their deception and ambushed them with nerve-agent bullets, leaving Qin Xiao, Natasha, Yelena, and Francis exposed to his trap.

• Tony scanned Yelena's brain and identified a nerve agent that he believed he could temporarily counteract.
• Several days later, Yelena used pink smoke to knock out Qin Xiao and Natasha, then secretly signaled that they were pretending to be unconscious.
• Yelena reported to Dreykov, who told her that Widows would meet her and bring her to him.
• At Francis's farm, Dreykov and Francis waited for the arriving SUV, and Francis hurried forward to greet Qin Xiao.
• Dreykov revealed that he had suspected Yelena's report was false and had arranged an ambush with Widows and nerve-agent bullets.
• Snipers fired the special bullets at the group, releasing pink mist around Qin Xiao and the others as Dreykov laughed triumphantly.

Qin Xiao and the sisters resisted Dreykov’s nerve agent and countered his attempt to control them, but Dreykov’s layered traps killed most of the people nearby. Qin Xiao pursued Dreykov as he tried to escape by aircraft, unaware of what Dreykov had prepared next.

• Dreykov ordered his super soldiers to break Francis’s wrist and kill Natasha and Yelena, but Qin Xiao disarmed and kicked them aside while the sisters aimed their pistols at Dreykov.
• Dreykov asked why his nerve agent had failed, and Qin Xiao explained that Tony Stark had developed an antidote and immunity vaccine.
• Dreykov triggered a device that made seven people attack Qin Xiao and the sisters, but Natasha used red antidote vials to restore their senses.
• Dreykov ran for his aircraft as a booby-trapped car exploded twice, killing six of the seven people and severely injuring the surviving super soldier.
• Qin Xiao confirmed Natasha and Yelena were unharmed, then leaped toward Dreykov’s aircraft and reached for his Tang saber to disable a thruster.

Qin Xiao failed to stop Dreykov from escaping, and Dreykov then killed three captured Widows by activating their self-destruct program. After the system assigned Qin Xiao a mission to destroy the Red Room and kill Dreykov, Natasha revealed that Alexei Shostakov might know the base’s location, though he was imprisoned in Siberia.

• Dreykov ordered two super soldiers to attack Qin Xiao, and they detonated themselves to blast him away while Dreykov escaped by jet.
• Natasha and Yelena comforted Qin Xiao and suggested finding the Widows who had attacked them with nerve-agent bullets.
• Dreykov activated the self-destruct program of three Widows, and Qin Xiao, Natasha, and Yelena found them dead.
• Qin Xiao received a system mission to destroy the Red Room, rescue the controlled Widows, and kill Dreykov.
• Yelena explained that the Red Room’s hidden base had been relocated and that Widows were sedated before entering or leaving it.
• Natasha said Alexei Shostakov might know where the Red Room was, and revealed that he was imprisoned in Siberia.

In a remote Siberian prison, Alexei Shostakov bragged about his past as the Red Guardian and injured a new prisoner who mocked his claims. Qin Xiao smashed through the prison wall to announce Alexei’s release, but Alexei begged to stay.

• Alexei defeated prisoners in arm-wrestling matches and boasted that he had fought Captain America.
• A new prisoner laughed at Alexei’s story, so Alexei broke his arm and punched a dent into a metal table.
• Qin Xiao punched a hole through the reinforced wall and kicked a piece of steel out of his way.
• Qin Xiao asked for Alexei Shostakov and told him it was time to leave.
• Alexei admitted he was Shostakov and asked to remain in prison because he liked it there.

Qin Xiao rescued Alexei from prison so Natasha and Yelena could question him about Dreykov. After confronting Alexei over abandoning the sisters, Qin Xiao learned that Melina might know where Dreykov was.

• Qin Xiao broke into the prison, showed Alexei a family photograph, and carried him out despite the soldiers preparing to stop them.
• Qin Xiao hurled Alexei over the prison wall and jumped with him across to the mountain where Natasha and Yelena had parked the jet.
• Natasha told Alexei that they had rescued him to learn about Dreykov, and Alexei claimed he knew nothing about Dreykov’s whereabouts.
• Yelena described the surgery inflicted on her in the Red Room, and Qin Xiao slapped Alexei and threatened to throw him from the jet.
• Alexei said Melina, the sisters’ so-called mother, might know where Dreykov was.

Qin Xiao learned more about the Red Room’s abuse of Natasha’s family and helped them unite against Dreykov. With the location of Dreykov’s moving sky base unknown, Qin Xiao planned to use Tony Stark’s internet expertise to reach him.

• Melina warned that Dreykov’s pheromone could prevent anyone affected from attacking him, and Qin Xiao demonstrated that his 1,500-degree flames could destroy it.
• Natasha, Yelena, Alexei, and Melina shared their pasts and agreed to fight the Red Room together, while the daughters told their parents about Qin Xiao and his allies.
• Melina revealed that Natasha’s parents had not abandoned her and that Dreykov’s daughter Antonia had survived the explosion and been turned into an assassin.
• Melina explained that Dreykov’s base was a mobile sky fortress, making it difficult to locate, and said he communicated by email.
• Qin Xiao rejected Melina’s plan to lure Dreykov out and proposed sending someone to him by email, saying Tony Stark could help.

Qin Xiao, Tony Stark, Natasha, and their allies attacked Dreykov’s sky base, freeing the Widows from his control and launching a fight to destroy the Red Room. Qin Xiao confronted Dreykov while Natasha and Yelena led the liberated Widows through the base.

• Tony Stark’s JARVIS located the Red Room’s sky base, and Natasha, Yelena, Melina, Alexei, Tony, and Qin Xiao flew there.
• Tony caught Qin Xiao above the base and sent him to confront Dreykov while he spread nerve-agent antidote through the air intakes.
• Qin Xiao smashed into Dreykov’s office through the skylight and confronted him.
• The antidote freed the Widows from Dreykov’s control, and Natasha urged them to fight for their freedom.
• Natasha and Yelena led the Widows, Alexei, and Tony through the base as gunfire erupted.

Qin Xiao and Tony took control of Dreykov’s sky base, freed the Widows from the Red Room, and began turning them into a safer intelligence network. After Tony finished upgrading the base’s energy system, it landed in northern Greenland, where a shield lay beneath the ice.

• Natasha and the Widows confronted Dreykov after Qin Xiao restrained him, while Qin Xiao and Tony reviewed the Red Room’s records and the Widows’ global network.
• Qin Xiao decided to recall the Widows, free them from the neurochemical agent, and let them choose whether to start new lives or work as intelligence agents; he and Tony also arranged to move the sky base toward New York.
• Qin Xiao received 1,000 points and the Widows’ Sweetie necklace, then learned it made rescued Widows feel especially grateful to him and more inclined to repay him.
• Most of the Widows chose to continue working as spies, and Qin Xiao handed command of them to Natasha.
• After four days of repairs and upgrades, Tony completed the sky base’s new energy system, and the base landed in northern Greenland, near a shield buried beneath the ice.

Qin Xiao and Tony Stark found Captain America frozen beneath the Greenland ice and brought him aboard the sky base. After two days, Steve Rogers woke above the clouds and met Qin Xiao, who welcomed him as an angel sent to guide him.

• Tony tried to replace the sky base's power core, but Qin Xiao tore it loose and was sent flying by the resulting jet of flame.
• Qin Xiao discovered Captain America's shield beneath the ice, and Tony used his armor to locate the frozen Steve Rogers nearby.
• Tony doubted Steve could survive thawing, but medical scans showed that he was alive, so Tony paid Qin Xiao ten dollars.
• The sky base stopped above the clouds off New York, and Steve woke alone and explored the futuristic station.
• Qin Xiao greeted Steve at the elevator, introducing himself as an angel sent to guide him.

Qin Xiao helped Captain America adjust to the modern world while steering him toward Qin Xiao’s organization. Nick Fury visited the Sky Base to recruit its team, but the chapter ended before he met Qin Xiao.

• Captain America calmly accepted the futuristic Sky Base and learned about the decades he had missed from Yelena and educational videos.
• Captain America told Qin Xiao he had left behind a date, and Qin Xiao invited him to stay at the base while he adjusted to the modern world.
• Nick Fury grew alarmed over Qin Xiao taking control of the Red Room’s forces and positioning the Sky Base near New York, while Natasha’s resignation deepened his concern.
• Nick Fury flew to the Sky Base and considered how Qin Xiao’s small group could act where armies and elite squads could not.
• Nick Fury waited in a reception room until Qin Xiao teased him for staring dramatically at the sky.

Qin Xiao argued with Nick Fury over political oversight of the Avengers and the risks of the World Security Council’s hidden plans. Nick warned Qin about the attention the Red Room’s resources would attract, then unexpectedly met Captain America.

• Nick Fury criticized Qin Xiao for using the Avengers to fight crime and terrorism, while Qin argued that their actions had made the world safer.
• Nick Fury compared the World Security Council to a lawn mower, and Qin replied that the world also needed a sickle to handle what it overlooked.
• Qin Xiao hinted that he knew about Project Insight and said he understood far more about the world and future than Nick expected.
• Nick Fury warned Qin that people would covet the Red Room’s resources and urged him and Tony to consider the importance of public trust and stable governments.
• Nick Fury encountered Steve Rogers, mistook a face mask for a sticky disposable towel, and reacted in shock when Qin introduced them.

Qin Xiao took Captain America to revisit Brooklyn and the museum before receiving a Senate summons concerning the Sky Base and the Red Room. At the hearing, Qin Xiao disputed accusations of illegal entry, and the senators showed footage of him rescuing Alexei.

• Nick Fury sent Dr. Banner to join the Avengers, while Captain America agreed with much of Qin Xiao's views after overhearing his conversation with Fury.
• Qin Xiao drove Captain America around Brooklyn, where Captain America recalled his old neighborhood and Bucky.
• Captain America visited the museum and watched videos of the Howling Commandos, Bucky, and Peggy Carter.
• Qin Xiao found a Senate summons for himself, Tony, and Natasha concerning the Sky Base and the Red Room, and he saw Captain America as an ally in answering it.
• At the hearing, Qin Xiao denied illegally entering Ukraine and White Russia, saying he and Natasha had been kidnapped from their Manhattan apartment.
• The senators played surveillance footage of Qin Xiao punching through a prison wall and rescuing Alexei.

At a Senate hearing, Qin Xiao, Tony Stark, and Natasha Romanoff rejected demands to hand over the Red Room’s Sky Base and former agents. Qin Xiao intimidated the senators with a display of his powers and left after warning that identical ballots and bullets awaited them at home.

• Tony Stark presented evidence that the Red Room’s nerve agent came from a government-linked Ohio laboratory and asked the senators to explain its development.
• A senator demanded that Qin Xiao, Tony Stark, and Natasha Romanoff hand over the Sky Base and the former Red Room agents to the government.
• Natasha Romanoff refused, defended the women’s freedom, and prompted Tony Stark to display information about the Red Room’s abuse of its Widows.
• The presiding officer threatened a special bill and possible force if the three refused to cooperate.
• Qin Xiao summoned small golden circles that delivered ballots and bullets to the senators, then challenged them to vote for force.
• Qin Xiao left with Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff after warning that every senator, including those absent, had the same items waiting in their bedroom.

Qin Xiao brought Captain America back into public life and made the Sky Base his, easing the Senate’s security concerns and helping the Avengers take shape. After spending system points on Intermediate Weapon Mastery, Qin Xiao tested his improved skills against Captain America but still could not break through the captain’s shield.

• The Ancient One demanded the two hundred million dollars Qin Xiao had promised, and Qin Xiao transferred the money after she threatened him with magical scissors.
• Qin Xiao publicly announced that the Sky Base belonged to Captain America, shifting public attention away from the Senate’s security proposal and onto the hero’s return.
• Captain America gave a television interview, accepted a military medal, and recorded a recruitment video while declining to return to military service for now.
• Captain America’s arrival completed the Avengers’ core team, with Natasha organizing intelligence, Tony supporting equipment and logistics, and Qin Xiao funding the operation.
• Qin Xiao spent 800 system points on Intermediate Weapon Mastery and found that his Tang saber felt more natural and effective in combat.
• Qin Xiao sparred with Captain America but could not overcome the shield’s defenses or its ability to absorb the saber’s impact.

Qin Xiao attended Christie's auction in Paris to recover two Chinese zodiac animal heads and learned that Japanese industrial heir Hishiguchi Kohei was bidding against him for the rat head. The bidding continued with Hishiguchi raising the price to eleven million euros.

• Qin Xiao and Captain America discussed their training and Captain America's recent mission in Africa with Alexei.
• Qin Xiao explained that Alexei, Melina, Yelena, and Antonia were traveling together, and described plans to use diamond mine profits to support local communities.
• Qin Xiao and Natasha attended Christie's auction in Paris, where the rat and rabbit heads from China's zodiac clock were among the lots.
• Qin Xiao waited until the bidding for the rat head reached eight million euros, then bid ten million.
• Hishiguchi Kohei bid eleven million euros, and Natasha told Qin Xiao about his powerful family and its ties to Japan's military and underworld.

Qin Xiao won the Twelve Chinese Zodiac Animal Heads and the rabbit head at auction, then publicly taunted Hishiguchi Kohei. When Hishiguchi Kohei threatened and grabbed him, Qin Xiao sent him flying into a wall, leaving the auction in chaos.

• Qin Xiao outbid Hishiguchi Kohei and bought the Twelve Chinese Zodiac Animal Heads for forty million euros.
• Qin Xiao addressed the auction guests, asked them to let the Chinese relics return to China, and mocked Hishiguchi Kohei for giving up on the rat head.
• Qin Xiao bought the rabbit head for eight million euros after Hishiguchi Kohei did not bid.
• Hishiguchi Kohei confronted Qin Xiao and threatened him, but Qin Xiao warned him to leave.
• Hishiguchi Kohei grabbed Qin Xiao by the collar and insulted him, so Qin Xiao sent him flying into the wall behind the stage.

After killing someone at the auction, Qin Xiao discovered a golden coffin that appeared to be the one he had commissioned and buried, so he took it to the New York Sanctum for The Ancient One to examine. After repeated attempts to look through time, The Ancient One concluded that their timeline had been severed.

• Qin Xiao paid Christie's and took the animal head, then noticed an ancient golden coffin whose worn inscription matched the phrase on the coffin he had commissioned.
• Qin Xiao pressed the Christie's staff and auctioneer about the coffin's origin, but they could only say it had belonged to a castle owner and his family.
• Qin Xiao called The Ancient One, carried the coffin through a portal to the New York Sanctum, and asked her to find out where it came from.
• The Ancient One tried to examine the coffin through time several times, growing increasingly shocked and eventually spitting blood.
• The Ancient One told Qin Xiao that their timeline had been severed.

The Ancient One explained that Kang the Conqueror had closed the timeline into a loop and created the Sacred Timeline after a war between branching multiverses. She revealed that Agamotto had helped Kang establish it, leaving Qin Xiao and Natasha with the history behind the timeline’s control.

• The Ancient One showed Qin Xiao and Natasha that the timeline ended a little over 5,000 years in the past and 1,000 years in the future, forming a closed loop between two timelines.
• The Ancient One identified Kang the Conqueror as the time traveler who had manipulated the timeline.
• The Ancient One explained that Kang’s time travel created branching timelines, multiplying Kangs and triggering a war across the multiverse.
• The Ancient One said the victorious Kang unified surviving timelines and founded the Time Variance Authority to prevent further branching, creating the Sacred Timeline.
• The Ancient One revealed that Agamotto had helped Kang persuade other Agamottos and sacrificed himself to regulate the timelines with the Eye of Agamotto.

The Ancient One explained that Kang the Conqueror had trapped the Sacred Timeline in a repeating loop, and revealed that Qin Xiao’s arrival had changed the future she had foreseen. Qin Xiao hid the truth about his transmigration and system, while the Ancient One questioned the mysterious coffin and explained why she had chosen him as the next Sorcerer Supreme.

• The Ancient One said Stephen Strange had once been destined to end Kang the Conqueror’s control of the Sacred Timeline, but Qin Xiao’s arrival changed that future.
• Natasha asked whether Stephen Strange was the doctor who had operated on her, and questioned why the Ancient One had chosen Qin Xiao instead of him.
• Qin Xiao claimed that dreams from another world had shown him parts of his past and knowledge of the future, while concealing his system and transmigration.
• The Ancient One said Qin Xiao’s soul might have crossed the closed timeline loop and explained that the coffin had passed through generations after being unearthed in ancient Europe.
• Qin Xiao asked why the Ancient One had selected him as Sorcerer Supreme, and she explained that his appearance had created futures in which she survived.